Bill fold



March 24, 1925. v

Y B. A. BROWN BILL FOLD Fild Nov 16. 1925 IN VEN TOR BunRALBRoW/v,

Patented Mar. 24, 1925.

1,530,811 PATENT OFFICE.

I 31133. A. nnown, or Annual LEA, 'mnnEsOra.

BILL- ronn.

Application filed Remember 1c, 1923. Serial No. 675,189.

To all whom it may concern: j

Beit known that I, Bonn A. BROWN, a citizen of the United States, andresident of Albert Lea, in the county of Freeborn, in the State ofMinnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in BillFolds, of which the following is a specification. 5

My invention relates to improvements in bill folds and it consists ofthe constructions,

combinations, and arrangements herein described and claimed.

An object of the invention is to provide a bill fold or currencypocket-book bymeans of which currency may be held in a more 1 compactand advantageous manner.

Another object of the invention is to provide a bill fold which isarranged to receive and hold a plurality of bills, each independently ofthe other, so that one bill may be extracted without handling ordisturbing any other bill. I p

A further object of the invention is to provide a bill fold having aflexible comb between the teeth of which the bills are independentlyheld, said comb being flexed into a kind of fan-shape when it is desiredto insert the bills in the first instance.

Other objects and advantages will appearfrom the followingspecification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, inwhich,

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the bill-fold closed.

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing the bill-fold opene Figure 3 is aperspective view showing how the comb is flexed in putting the bills inplace.

Figure 4c is a perspective view showing how the bill-fold is held whenpaging through the various bills in order to find one of the desireddenomination.

In carrying out'the. invention provision is made of a single piece ofmaterial such as leather, imitation leather, heavy binders cloth or thelike, this piece of leather being indicated 1, 2.and 3 respectively,indicating the back of the bill-fold, the inner flap and the outer flap.The inner and outer flaps carry the component parts 4 and 5 of anordinary snap fastener which is commonly seen on gloves.

One side ofthe back 1 is a little larger than the other, that isto say,the leather along the left side is cut so as to produce a flange 6 whichis lapped over the base or back 7 of a comb. The comb has a plurality ofteeth 8, the end teeth 9 and 10 being considerably wider than those inthe middle for the purpose of rigidifying the back 1 transversely. Theback 7 of the comb is sufiiciently heavy to serve this purposelengthwise of the bill-fold. The comb is either cemented, eyeleted orriveted in place along the back 7 and the tooth 10. Any-one may be usedaccording to the nature of the outside material used.

The teeth 8 of the comb are readily flexed.

the spaces between the teeth. The fact that the back of the combrigidifies the bill-fold longitudinally is not to be understood to meanthat the comb back is so stiif that it cannot bend. The comb is made ofcelluloid or other suitable material, and is adapted to serve bothpurposes very well.

All of the teeth are straight as clearly shown in Figure 2. The largeend tooth 9 becomes useful in permitting the user to obtaln a hold onthe comb with the thumb of the left-hand (Fig. 3) when he desires toflex or twist the comb in inserting the currency in the first instance.The inner flap 2 s cut away on a bias as at 11. The purpose in thuscutting the flap 2 away is to make it poss ble to have access to thecurrency in turning down the exposed corners of the bill in searchingfor one of the wanted denomination.

The operation may be readily understood from the foregoing description.Assume that the user of the bill-fold desires to fill it with aplurality of bills. He holds the bill-fold in the fingers of the lefthand about as shown in Figure 3. The end tooth 9 is gripped by the thumband the teeth. 8 of the comb are spread in a fan-like manner so that thespaces may be opened and the currency inserted in an orderly way. Thebill-fold may then be folded up and snapped in the closed position asshown in Figure 1. In holding the bill-fold in the left hand as statedthe back 7 of the comb will be bowed to a slight extent. This bowing ofthe comb is not prevented by the fact that the back of the combrigidities the bill-fold longitudinall The material ofv which the combis ma e is intended to be such that both functions -may be performed.The

bills or currency may either be folded before insertion or insertedwithout folding, this flap 3 being thrown all the way back (Figure 4),the inner flap 2 being held down with the thumb of the left hand. Theinterposed flap 2 obviates the necessity of pressing down on the teethof the comb itself. The corners of the bills exposed beyond the cut awaybiased portion 11 of the inner flap 2 may now be turned down with thefingers of the right hand until the bill of the wanted denomination isfound. This bill may be extracted without in any way molesting the otherbills. It is not necessary to handle any of the other bills in order toreach and extract a particular one, other than to page through saidbills as just explained.

The advantages of the improved bill-fold are obvious enough. The billswill be held firmly in position afterhaving been once inserted. Thenatural resiliency of the comb and the snapped inner and outer flapswill contribute largely toward the holding of the bills. Again, all ofthe bills will abut theclosed side or back 7 of the comb. It is.therefore possible that they may slip one way only, but from this theywill be prevented by the means already described.

Ordinarily, bills are placed in large sized bill-folds in a spread openposition without regard to order, and afterwards folded up to aconvenient size to fit a pocket in the users clothin In thesebill-folds, the bills are not quic y and easily accessible andextracted, and generally require the taking out of some of the bills, inorder that they may be looked over, and the selection of a particularbill made.

With the improved bill-fold this is not necessar The bills arepreferably folded once eac way to reduce them to one-quarter size beforeinsertion between the teeth of a the comb. This calls for acomparatively small bill-fold which is readily pocketed. It is to beunderstood that the bill-fold may be made of any. flexible material,some of which have already been mentioned above, while the comb may bemade of materials of different values such as celluloid, ivory, horn(imitation or otherwise), or possibly silver, gold or the like.

One purpose is to devise a bill-fold that can be manufactured verycheaply in the event that it is to be used as an advertising specialty.Again, other bill-folds may be made up of expensive leather, and in suchcases the comb will be made of a corresponding high grade of material.The appearance of the bill-fold will be much enhanced by suitablyapplying a silver or gold plate to the outside flaps on which the nameor monogram of the owner may be engraved.

While the construction and arrangement of the improved bill-fold asherein described and claimed is that. of a generally preferred form,obviously modifications and changes may be made without departing fromthe spirit of the invention or the scope of the claim.

I claim A bill-fold comprisin a case,'a comb of resilient material incluing a back and a plurality of teeth afiixed to the case along said back,a broad tooth at one extremity of the comb also fastened to the case,and

a similar broad tooth at the other end of the comb adapted to be grip edby the thumb of one hand to twist the comb to se arate the teeth tofacilitate insertion of fo ded currency.

BURR A. BROWN.

